I just read an excellent blog post titled, "A Scrum Master Job Description," on one of my favorite blogs, Illustrated Agile. In it, Len Lagestee describes the role of a scrum master from the view of the team and the company, based on their needs rather than a checklist of to-dos.

Here is my favorite part:

I recently came across an old blog post by Marc Loffler titled "10 Things to Drive Your Scrummaster Crazy." The "10 Things" seemed pretty innocuous to me...be late, hide impediments, do tasks that aren't part of the sprint backlog. All things that are not fatal, but a practice that the team could improve upon. I just kept focusing on the first line, "In my life as a ScrumMaster, I faced many things which drove me nuts."

As a ScrumMaster, one way to improve your own skills is to become so comfortable with your position that things don't drive you nuts, make you crazy, freak you out, or otherwise cause your blood pressure to rise. Relax. Breathe. It's only scrum.

In fact, I will counter with five ways to make sure that nothing a scrum team does will drive you nuts.

1. When you talk to your team, make sure that the first thing out of your mouth is a compliment or other positive statement. If you start right in with whatever it is that you think they are doing wrong, they will naturally be defensive. On the other hand, when you start with a positive statement, that reminds you that not all is lost - that there is success, even if they were late to stand-up today, or even tomorrow.

2. You don't have to tell them everything you see that can be improved. Like the breaking down of large stories, large changes in a team require attacking issues one small step at a time.

3. Learn to identify things that aren't your problem to solve. Loffler lists at least five things that aren't in the Scrum Master's realm of things they should be fixing, at least directly: work assignment, lateness, ignoring the definition of done, working on non-sprint tasks. If a developer says they don't have anything to do, it's the team's responsibility to help that person figure some things out. If an individual repeatedly can't figure out what to work on, then the training moment from the Scrum Master isn't to the individual, it's to the team on the importance of accountability and inclusiveness.

4. If something really bothers you, just mention it to the team...."I've noticed that...." and let it go. The team will either pick it up, or they will decide it's not important. That should be OK. If a team were required to fix everything that you didn't like, you'd be their project manager, not their Scrum Master.

5. Remind yourself of the Agile Principles. Encourage your team to know and love them. Set a good example. The details will come, if you help them feel the benefit of the overall picture.

Basically, relax and let go of the need to control.

To muck up an old saying about watches: a team with one backlog always knows which item is the highest priority, a team with two backlogs is never sure.